AniMat's Reviews - The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature (Transcript)
This page contains the full transcript of AniMat's review of The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature that he published on August 18th, 2017. 1. Introduction The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature. In this modern age of cinema, franchises and sequels are starting to become a lot more common than finding something that's original. So much so, it's also a bit of a problem when studios are making sequels to films that no one demanded it to have a sequel in the first place. With that said, considering how the first film was, this is one of the most pointless sequels ever made! I mean, not many people saw the first movie, heck, I don't think many people know what The Nut Job is in the first place, and even fewer of those people would even like it! The first film was more of a generic kids flick that ended up becoming shockingly mean-spirited. Sure, the animation ain't that bad, but it was far from enough to wash off the horrible taste of poor, lowbrow humour and a despicable main character! But now that we're stuck with another adventure with these salty nuts, will Surly find a way to redeem himself from his dark past, or is this franchise 'Crappy By Nature'? Let's find out! 2. The Story In the first movie, the one element that would make it a little more unique is the fact that it's a heist film, a concept that originated from the 2005 animated short it was based on. Sure, it was executed very poorly, but at least it was something to give it its own identity. If you take that out, you'd be left with nothing. That is exactly what happened here. I am not joking when I say that this is one of the most generic animated kids' films that has ever been produced. It's a big statement, sure, but that's exactly how it feels. Overall, this is nothing but a movie featuring talking animals trying to save their home from greedy industrialism. It goes through the same boring steps as any other cartoon with that storyline, resulting in a very predictable plot where the outcome can be easily guessed within the first ten minutes. Surly: "The Mayor wants to destory everything." Mayor Muldoon: "I got bigger plans than trees... An amusement park!" Andie: "They're gonna destroy the park!" Okay, so the plot kind of sucks. But there has to be something worthwhile in it that would be the driving force of this feature. You know, the one thing the film focused on crafing it better than the story itself. Sadly, no. I'll get more into it later, but the one thing this movie focused on was getting rid of the big issues that made people hate the first Nut Job. The mistake it made by doing so is that the filmmakers only removed them and forgot to implement something of substance in its place, resulting in what feels more like a 90-minute time waster than a movie that can be worth watching. The same can be said with the humour of the film. It's not cringeworthy or put this movie on a stupid level, the jokes are just poorly executed and would mostly miss their mark. The only exception that people would most likely remember from this is this one scene where a dog throws up and then proceeds to eat it. Because apparently, barf is the next big thing in comedy for kids. Although the story is no longer hate-filled like last time, it still holds a bad script by being completely lazy with it. 3. The Animation Okay, this is going to be the weirdest thing to say about the visuals, but the problem with the animation is that it simultaneously tries way too hard and not enough. How is that possible? Well, allow me to explain. First off, it did carry many of the good traits of the animation from the first film, like some strong character designs on the animals, the character animation can be quite entertaining and present some fun movements, and the textures look good on them. I will give them points for having some professional artists doing their job well on the film. Surly: "That is a lot of sugar for a little guy." Outside of that however, because the script offered very little, so does what the animators have to do for the film. With the backgrounds, I understand that they have to be limited to a park, or at the most, one corner of a city, but that's all it is. There's nothing about it that we're seeing a special world that would feature unique characters from their point of view. Even the amusement park at the end of the film is rather dull-looking. The only area that does feel a bit creative is Jackie Chan Mouse's lair and we only see it for about five minutes. And then there are the action scenes, and the movie features a whole bunch of them. I can see the direction that it's going in order to implement the excitement and have a moment to show off the characters' potential. But it ends up becoming repetitive very quick. Every ten minutes, Surly and the gang would go on a crazy battle against some insane humans and both sides end up using heavy machinery to fight off the other. Sure, they can be placed in different situations, but it ultimately just hammers in the premise of 'Nature Vs. Industrialism' and we're meant to root for the animals, and it's from there why it feels like the audience is just watching the same scene over and over again. Also, as it does have a relatively low budget, the rendering is limited to having the characters' movements feel less smooth, which doesn't really do justice to the detailed designs. The movie doesn't get away with a bad script, but I guess I'll give it a pass for its animation. 4. The Characters If I do have to give this movie credit, it's that it did listen to the criticisms of the first film in order to fix them up in here. The biggest improvement is that it no longer feels mean-spirited and Surly's character went through a massive change to where any traces of him being a despicable jerk are gone. Also, Grayson, the idiotic hero, completely vanished here. Like, no mention of him at all. While I do applaud it for having the need to do better than what it did before, again, it didn't do anything to add something that would at least make the film worthwhile. This results in the entire cast being one-dimensional and all they can do is just run their single character trait to the ground. Surly, while more likeable than before, is now just the wisecracking leader of the animals that wants an easy life for everyone with the help of a rat named Buddy, Andie is the love interest whose job is to always force in the film's message of 'hard work can pay off and teamwork', and the Mayor is the new antagonist who is nothing but an over-the-top politician who cares about nothing but money, and has an equally over-the-top daughter. Those are the only notable characters that don't fit in the category of a comic relief. With all the different animals in the feature, Surly's crew consists of nothing but dumb and goofy side characters that are meant to supply the film's stale humour. The only one that's different among them is Precious, because for some reason, the movie feels like she needs more screen time just to give her a love interest. By the way, that actually brings up another big problem with the film: It actually has a lot of filler. Most of the time, when it wants to try to explain who this character is or how they're trying to solve a problem, they end up feeling pointless and serve no reason to have it be related to the plot. Even with the heavily marketed Jackie Chan Mouse, that's mostly a novelty to have it be the next big Nut Job character that only appears for one scene and at the end to save the day. Mr. Feng: "Don't call me cute!" Surly: (groans) "The boot was too much..." Mr. Feng: "This is my city, you are on my turf." Even if they're debatably better than in the predecessor, there still isn't much worth remembering about the characters. 5. Conclusion Well Surly, I don't hate you anymore, it's just now you make me bored. The Nut Job 2: Nutty By Nature may have resolved some of the issues of the first film, but it barely did anything new and ended up becoming one of the most generic animated features with a dull script containing a bland 'Nature Vs. Industrialism' story, annoyingly hammered down messages, and a cast of quickly forgettable characters. Not even the okay animation is enough to give this film any kind of substance. The only use I can see for this feature is just a kid distracter. Put this on TV, hope the kids will notice the cartoon, and have them distracted for 90 minutes while you spend your time more wisely, rather it be working on an important project or just, well, watch a better film. Just don't be surprised if I end up forgetting most of it by the time you're watching this. 6. Ratings Story: 3/10 Animation: 6/10 Characters: 4/10 Total: 4/10 Category:2017 Category:Transcripts